A.J. Griffin will have season-ending elbow surgery Wednesday in Houston.

(UPDATED)

The A’s have lost a second member of the 2014 starting rotation to elbow surgery with the news that A.J. Griffin will undergo elbow surgery Wednesday in Houston.

Griffin was in Houston Tuesday to see Dr. Thomas Mehlhoff for a second opinion on the state of his elbow. Dr. Mehlhoff will perform the elbow surgery, with a typical recovery time of about 12 months, depending on the type of surgery involved.

A’s manager Bob Melvin said he wasn’t sure of the type of surgery that would be needed (Tommy John-style ligament replacement surgery is considered the likeliest option) but said he’d talked to Griffin and said the right-hander was taking the news in a positive way.

“He’s a happy-go-lucky guy,’’ the manager said. “This means he can see the light at the end of the tunnel to be able to pitch next season.’’

Griffin and Jarrod Parker both were supposed to be members of the rotation this year, but both found they couldn’t go forward pitching in pain mid-March, and Parker had surgery shortly thereafter. Griffin was told that three weeks of rest might get his right elbow back in form, but it didn’t happen.

With Straily throwing seven one-run innings Thursday in a 6-1 win over the Twins, Oakland starters have allowed three runs or fewer in all nine of their games this year. The last time they did that, 1990, they wound up in the World Series.

It’s way too early to be thinking such lofty thoughts now, but the fact is that while pitching is a very individual pursuit, the A’s starting corps of Sonny Gray, Scott Kazmir, Jesse Chavez and Straily – No. 5 starter Tommy Milone makes his debut Friday in Seattle – have a nice bond.

If the minds who decided to add the replay and review system into baseball in 2014 thought the game would be somehow be made crisper by getting the calls right, and right away, they were wrong.

Wednesday’s game between the A’s and the Twins was all about replays.

In the second inning, Jed Lowrie thought he was still at the plate after a foul tip. A lengthy discussion determined that he was out, that former A’s catcher Kurt Suzuki had caught the foul tip and the ball hadn’t touched the ground.

“All of a sudden the flow of the game seemed to have stopped,’’ manager Bob Melvin said. “We didn’t do anything after that.’’

In the ninth inning Jim Johnson thought he’d struck out Eduardo Escobar, but Derek Norris was ruled not to have caught the foul tip, Escobar remained alive and popped a single to left to score a run.

On that single, Yoenis Cespedes threw to third base in an attempt to get a force out. The call was that runner Kurt Suzuki was safe and that call, after another lengthy review stood.

Donaldson said he felt Suzuki slide into the bag, “while I had control of the ball,’’ which should have meant an out.

Melvin said on the A’s video review of that play, “we were getting the out call. We thought he was out.

“It’s maddening and it’s tough to deal with at times.’’

–Jesse Chavez didn’t get his first win of the season Wednesday, but that wasn’t what bugged him after the A’s 7-4, 11-inning victory.

He was annoyed at giving up the one run he did, a solo homer hit by Jason Kubel in the second inning, saying he’d “like to have that one back.’’

For the most part, however, it was another strong argument why Chavez deserves to be in the Oakland rotation. He mostly pitched ahead in the count, he struck out a career-best nine, he didn’t walk anyone and only once did the Twins get men on base at the same time against him, and that lasted for about 10 seconds before Sam Fuld threw out Trevor Plouffe at third base.

He said he was trying to use his changeup more.

His manager admired what he did to keep the Twins in check.

“Chavvy was great again,’’ Melvin said. “that’s what we’ve seen from him every game since spring training. You see the focus he has. He wants to run with this opportunity.’’

Sonny Gray is the last man standing in drive to start opener for the A’s

Sonny Gray got the job that just about everyone but Sonny Gray expected him to get when A’s manager Bob Melvin named him the opening day starter.

Gray will be followed in the rotation by Scott Kazmir, Jesse Chavez, Dan Straily and Tommy Milone.

The opening day start was expected originally to go to Jarrod Parker, but the competition opened up when it was learned that Parker will miss the season and undergo tommy John-style ligament replacement surgery.

Even with Parker, Gray was considered a contender for the opening day assignment by manager Bob Melvin, who isn’t afraid of putting the 24-year-old in the spotlight.

Last year in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series, Melvin went with Gray over 18-game winner Bartolo Colon, and while the A’s lost that game, it wasn’t because Gray didn’t pitch well.

“He’s very quickly become one of those guys,’’ Melvin said of Gray, who was 5-3 with a 2.67 ERA after his promotion to the big leagues last year and then pitched eight shutout innings in Game 2 of the playoffs against Detroit before taking the 3-0 loss in Game 5.

With under two weeks to go in spring training, the A’s have more roster decisions to make before opening day than they would have believed even a few days ago, thanks to news that Jarrod Parker (Tommy John surgery) and A.J. Griffin (elbow/forearm) won’t be available when the Indians come to town March 31.

It’s not all about the pitching, however, even if it seems like it sometimes.

Jarrod Parker facing the Dodgers in his last spring start before injury problems cropped up

The A’s starting rotation got walloped with bad news Monday with the determination that right-hander Jarrod Parker will miss the 2014 season.

Parker, who has been dealing with right forearm discomfort, met with Dr. James Andrews Monday in Florida, and the decision has been made that Parker needs Tommy John-style ligament replacement surgery.

It’s the second go-around with Tommy John surgery for Parker, who had it in 2009 and missed the 2010 season. He’s scheduled to under the surgery a week from Tuesday in Pensacola with Andrews in charge.

The A’s are already missing starter A.J. Griffin to being the season. He needs three weeks rest for elbow strain before he throws again

Scott Kazmir was scratched from his start Monday, but his triceps stiffness is considered relatively minor and he could start again Tuesday or Wednesday.

The A’s have talked plenty in the last 36 hours about the depth of their pitching.

And while it’s true that they can promote someone like Jesse Chavez to fill in as a member of the rotation to start the season, that kind of move necessarily weakens them in the bullpen.

Chavez has only made two big league starts in 191 career games. The A’s have never seen him go more than 5.2 innings, and that was in relief in an 18-inning game. He was terrific in that one, throwing scoreless relief and getting the win.

Chavez, at least early on, can’t be expected to go more than five innings in starts because he doesn’t have the track record. If it was any other pitcher, the A’s could weather that, because they’d have Chavez in the bullpen to come in the game in the fifth or sixth inning.

With Chavez in the rotation, that luxury is gone unless they can come up with Chavez Lite.

So for the final couple of weeks, the A’s may stretch out Josh Lindblom and Drew Pomeranz with the idea that one of them will take Chavez’s role as the man who eats innings in the bullpen.

Lindblom, acquired from Texas in the Michael Choice deal that brought outfielder Craig Gentry to Oakland, could have a chance to make the opening day roster now that wasn’t there just a couple of days ago. The Rangers started him five times last year, but they seemed to have liked him in bullpen. His overall numbers weren’t great (1-3, 5.46 ERA overall, but he allowed no runs in 4.1 innings in three games of relief.

Pomeranz, a lefty picked up from Colorado in the Brett Anderson trade, falls into much of that same situation. He pitched in eight games for the Rockies last year, starting four. He had an 8.10 ERA as a starter, but in five innings of relief over four games, he, too, didn’t allow a run.

Until this week, both men seemed likely to be heading to Triple-A Sacramento. Now, with injuries to Jarrod Parker and A.J. Griffin opening up jobs, they have a chance to start in Sacramento.

To this point, Lindblom seems to have the edge. Both have pitched in four games, but Lindblom’s 3.32 ERA is about half of Pomeranz’s 6.23. But Pomeranz is scheduled to pitch in relief today in Scottsdale against the Giants, so he has a chance to bridge the gap.

Jesse Chavez is pitching his way into A’s starting rotation with Jarrod Parker, A.J. Griffin hurting

Jesse Chavez seems to have come into his own since the middle of last season.

And the timing couldn’t be better for the A’s, who very likely will plug the right-handed pitcher into the starting rotation to begin the season with Friday’s news that Jarrod Parker (forearm tightness) and A.J. Griffin (elbow soreness) both could be out of action to start the season.

He’s only started twice in 191 career games, but the A’s, like the Blue Jays before them, have kept him stretched out, holding open the possibility of using him as a starter.

Chavez’s last 10 games last year saw him put together a 2.84 ERA while holding opposing hitters to a .163 batting average. That was all in relief, but both general manager Billy Beane and manager Bob Melvin have talked about moving Chavez into the rotation if there was ever a need.

The need is now. And Chavez has been making himself ready for this moment, including throwing 12.2 scoreless innings this spring, four of them Thursday against the Rockies.

The secret, says the 30-year-old Chavez, is being able to visualize a pitch before he throws it.

The first starting pitchers for A’s Cactus League play starting Wednesday will be Jesse Chavez, Tommy Milone and Jarrod Parker.

Manager Bob Melvin told the Bay Area News Group Sunday evening he’d mistakenly swapped Milone and Parker when he was talking about his first three starters of the Cactus League season.

There was no official notice of an opening day starter from Melvin, but the fact that Parker is pitching Friday suggests that he is down to get the opening day start.

Oakland starting pitcher candidates Parker, A.J. Griffin, Scott Kazmir, Dan Straily, and Sonny Gray are expected to throw every fifth day to get them in order.

Doing that would, when you factor in days off March 20 and March 30, would have Parker scheduled for a March 31 start. And that’s opening day in the Coliseum against the Indians.

Milone has a chance to break into that rotation, but if he does so, it likely would have to be at the expense of Straily, who won 10 games for the A’s as a starter after being called up to stay at the end of April.

Although he’s been a starter and is getting Wednesday’s start against the Giants in Scottsdale Stadium, Chavez pitched only relief in Oakland last year and would seem destined for that role again this year.

–Twitter 1, Melvin 0.

Melvin joined Twitter last spring with the idea that he needed to keep abreast of the latest trends. He lasted three days. He didn’t much like what he read, finding it annoying for the most part.

But he’s back. He said Sunday he joined Twitter for a second time, this time under an alias, and for the moment, at least, will just read and won’t be posting tweets. He noted his buddy, Diamondbacks manager Kirk Gibson joined this year and has tweeted once.

Who’s he following? A total of 29 people at this point including about 10 of his players and most of the local media involved in covering the A’s. That would include one @jhickey3.

“It’s more the players who annoy me more than anything else,’’ he said. “Some of the stuff, I don’t even want to see what they’re doing.’’